DOTr stands by NAIA concession agreement

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) stood firm that the concession agreement signed by the government and the private sector for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project was aboveboard.

“This was a properly bidded out concession agreement, advised no less than by the Asian Development Bank, so the government stands by the agreement and the process by which the agreement was signed,” Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon said at a press conference on Thursday.

In a 182-page petition filed before the Supreme Court (SC), lawyers sought a temporary restraining order, writ of preliminary injunction, or status quo ante order to prohibit the respondents from implementing the MIAA Revised Administrative Order No. 1 and the NAIA PPP Project Concession Agreement.

Petitioners also asked the SC to declare the order and the agreement as unconstitutional, illegal, and void.

The petitioners are lawyers Joel Butuyan, Soledad Derequito-Mawis, Tony La Viña, Roger Rayel, and Jose Mari Benjamin Francisco Tirol. 

The petitioners argued that Republic Act No. 11966 or the new PPP Code was not complied with during the bidding, award, and execution of the agreement. 

They said that the bidding process was conducted under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law, even though it was already repealed by the new PPP Code.

Dizon, however, declined to comment on the specific issues being raised in the case.

“It’s very difficult for us to react because it’s already in the Supreme Court,” he said.

Respondents to the petition are the Cabinet of the Executive Department, represented by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin; the Department of Transportation; the Manila International Airport Authority; the Pre-Qualification, Bids and Awards Committee for the NAIA public-private partnership project; the PPP Governing Board, and the New NAIA Infra Corp. — BM, GMA Integrated News